


hard to hold on to

by uptownskunk



Category: DCU
Genre: Adoption, Implied/Referenced Past Abuse, Light Angst, Mentioned Alfred Pennyworth, Mentioned Dick Grayson, New Year's GenFic Festival 2019, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uptownskunk/pseuds/uptownskunk
Summary: Jason doesn’t take to affection easily and Bruce isn’t quite used to giving it.Set after Jason first becomes Robin.





	hard to hold on to

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the New Year’s GenFic Festival on the genfic comm on Pillowfort for the prompt “showing affection.”

Jason doesn’t take to affection easily and Bruce isn’t quite used to giving it.

 

Dick was easier, more tactile, more likely to initiate a hug or a clap on the back, to lean into Bruce when they stood next to each other in costume or out of it.

 

Jason is not Dick.

 

This is apparent to Bruce from the second he finds the boy trying to steal the wheels off the Batmobile and it continues to be apparent every second of every day Jason is in his home as his ward and every second he’s in the cave training as his Robin.

 

It’s not a bad thing, Bruce thinks, just...different.

 

The way Jason tenses when Bruce is close to him, the way he outright flinches when Bruce brushes by him and then tenses like if he goes still Bruce won’t notice him, the way he looks at his surroundings like an alley cat with its eyes hyper-focused to everything around it like it doesn’t know whether it’s hunting for a mouse or vigilant for a well-aimed kick – it’s all different.

 

All new things Bruce has to consider when raising Jason, training him, that he never had to consider with Dick.

 

Things that are familiar, too, maybe, in ways that Bruce doesn’t like to think about, ways that he brushes off when Alfred asks him if maybe Jason _reminds_ him of anyone, maybe another orphaned boy who was pricklier to deal with than was healthy for his guardian’s sanity and who took to hugs as well as a fish did to a desert.

 

Granted Alfred didn’t say those exact words, too subtle for it by far, but Bruce can read between the lines.

 

He only hopes that he’s half as equipped at caring for Jason as Alfred was at caring for him, because if there’s one thing Bruce is certain of when it comes to Jason Todd it’s that he doesn’t deserve anything less.


End file.
